Musings about Tradition in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and an attempt to collect essays and articles which would appear in a Catholic press which exercised critical solidarity with the Hierarchy.

15 February 2014

Help Identify The Prelates!

.In the Missal which arrived yesterday, there are two pictures of prelates. Who are they?

The Missal received approval from Bishops Walsh and Wiseman in Birmingham in September 1845. They were Vicar Apostolic and Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic for the Central District at the time.I could convince myself that the lower one could be Pope Gregory XVI, then gloriously reigning, but who could the higher one be? I don't think either is Wiseman, and I haven't got a clue what Bishop Walsh looked like. The caption to the first picture simply records that it was engraved by H Adlard after a sketch by H W Phillips Esq.All help gratefully received..

4 comments:

A white biretta (unusual)and a pectoral cross ought to tell us something. I've done a bit of trawling but I'm no expert in clerical garb. He's not a Norbertine because there weren't any Norbertine bishops at that time (apart possibly from one in Spain)and according to their records they were without an Abbot General for most of the 1800s. Is he a bishop in the tropics? I can't think on any other reason for a white biretta. The dates you give are (I think)from before the days of any significant British missionary activity, so I doubt he's from these shores.

Rita: I was quite careful to quote the authorship because I could easily be persuaded that it is an engraving of a sketch of a red biretta with a white (ie winter dress) mozetta for a Cardinal. A good enough drawing, not a good one.

Genty: you'd have a lot of work to persuade me it was Manning - is there ever aq picture of him looking other than old and gaunt - though the Missal could easily have been in use until 1910, or whenever the Pius X reforms changed the Calendar.

I'll vote for Manning for the top image as well. There are a number of images of him at younger ages - 40s and 50s - and the resemblance is definitely close. No clue about white birettas and such. The Missal may have recd approval for publication in 1845, but I wonder whether the actual print date of this particular copy might not be later.